Clubbing, Coq au Vin Mix at London’s Antunes Restaurant

The dining room at Kitchen Joel Antunes is bright and sophisticated in the daytime. In the evenings, the ambience is more clubby. Photographer: Neil Setchfield/Network London via Bloomberg.

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Joel Antunes was one of London’s
culinary stars in the 1990s. Les Saveurs, on Curzon Street, was
awarded a Michelin star in 1994 and the French chef then moved
to the U.S., winning acclaim for Joel, in Atlanta.

Antunes is now back in Mayfair, after a circuitous journey
via the Oak Room in New York and the Westminster Park Plaza in
London. His new home is Kitchen Joel Antunes at Embassy Mayfair.
It’s a restaurant attached to a nightclub, for better and worse.

It’s an opportunity to try the cooking of a chef -- much
respected by his peers -- whose food is accessible and
enjoyable. The nature of the club business means the venue is
quiet at lunchtimes, so prices are low and you can enjoy a
conversation with your companions. You can even see them, too.

At night, things are different. The place is too dark, the
music is too loud and the dining room is filled with clubbers.
Attractive they are, too, though you may find it difficult to
identify them because it’s gloomy and large numbers of waiters
stand around, surveying the action and blocking the view.

The menu is as crowd-pleasing as I’m sure the music is
downstairs. It’s like in-room dining in a smart hotel. Think of
something you might like to eat -- tuna tartare, pasta, steak,
risotto -- and it’s there. Antunes has the talent to pull this
off. One of the best things I ate last year was his gazpacho.

Kit-Kat

Sit in the bright dining room at lunchtime -- or outside,
where there are tables beside the street -- and you may eat very
well. Perhaps start with Salade Nicoise, move on to Coq au Vin
(made with star anise) and end with “Le Kit-Kat,” a concoction
made of toffee and tonka-bean ice cream. The “introductory”
lunch menu is 25 pounds ($40) for two courses and 29 pounds for
three. Mayfair doesn’t get much better than that.

Kitchen Joel Antunes also has an ace up its sleeve in the
Italian sommelier, Yuri Gualeni. I have rarely come across a
wine waiter who is more engaging. I would trust him with my
corporate Amex card. In fact, I did. I still have a job.

The evenings are a mixed blessing. The menu is longer, so
there’s more choice of dishes, which are individually priced.
Kitchen Joel Antunes isn’t outrageous by Mayfair standards: Most
starters are 10-15 pounds and mains 20-30 pounds. If you dine
early, when it’s still light and clubbers don’t dare venture
out, it’s fine. Go late on a Saturday, as I did last week, and
there’s more of a buzz, though that was partly in my ears.

Antunes, who was born in Volvic, France, has worked at some
of France’s most famous restaurants, including Paul Bocuse and
Michel Troisgros. With the right place in London, he might have
people waiting weeks for a table. It’s worth crossing London to
try his food, but you probably wouldn’t do it twice at Embassy.

(Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Muse, the arts
and leisure section of Bloomberg News. He is U.K. and Ireland
chairman of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Opinions
expressed are his own.)